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Saturday, July 1, 2017

It has been a crazy couple of weeks of deliveries, unpacking product, bar coding, pricing, breaking down boxes, watering plants, writing orders, filling out credit apps, dealing with the bank, dealing with the landlord, the sign maker, getting postcards, meeting with reps and vendors, artisans, picking up product, and an endless list of other to do items. Whew!

I am having random mild anxiety flutters at 3am, wondering what the heck I'm doing, then other times I know exactly what I'm doing. I got to the store the other day to open up and a young man and his little girl were peeking in the front door. I see them frequently in the mornings walking by, so sweet together. He was looking in and said to her, "this looks like a fun store for us to come and visit", its great isn't it". Let me tell you, that made my week!
Just a few days before, some ass looked in with his probably high school age son, and said, "looks like another one of those stores that will go out of business". Keep in mind, there was almost no product in the store when he looked in. Smart Guy...

Wednesday, this 18 wheeler pulled up to the store with my plants. Mild panic wondering where I was going to put a trailer full of plants, but only a third of it was for me. Whew, again! The plants are beautiful and healthy and look so great in the store, just hope I can keep them that way!

We are starting to look like a real garden store. The shop is filling up with so many nice things, I would totally shop here. Hope you will too. Visit www.joshbroomehomestead.com for more blogging, I will probably be there more than here, and I have it connected with Facebook much to my dismay, but I am trying.....

Forage is the skin care line. The herbal ingredients are picked in the mountains of Appalachia, using time honored traditions of making soaps and using only the finest ingredients for skin care. The shop smells amazing, with aromas of huckleberry, elderberry, sassafras, fir and lemon balm. I spray a little of the Elderberry body mist on and my mood lifts instantly. The magic of aromatherapy!

I'm looking forward to trying out the goat cheese kit and the sourdough starter. The kits are complete with everything you need. What could be more satisfying than making it yourself and having a great appetizer before dinner? Plus it all looks so cool on the shelves.

I also love the look of the amber bottles I ordered. They can be used for bottling beer or kombucha or your favorite ciders. Or just decorating the kitchen, ha!

We have a local beer store across the street that sells great beers and we have been wandering over there on weekends after a long day in the shop to have a cold brew. My new favorite is Wicked Weeds Lunatic, because, well the name fits me most days right now! Cheers xo

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Owning a shop has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. I probably wanted a shop when I was born, but don't remember! I spent the entire day in my new space setting things up and waiting on a freight delivery and it was like floating on a cloud. I got all of the herb jars filled and the shop smelled of lavender, lemongrass, chamomile, burdock, and all sorts of other wonderful woody spicy scents. I have forty different herbs for making teas and tinctures or adding to body products. I hope people will get this and want to buy them from me. Its so much better to smell them and touch them than trying to figure it out on the internet.

While waiting on the very late truck to show up, I filled little muslin bags with lavender, just because I could. No checking emails, cringing at the ringing phone, having to drive to another store somewhere, packing luggage, sleeping in a hotel and waking up not knowing where I was.
Just breathing in the calm essence of a beautiful herb. Life can be so sweet some days

I found this really great card holder at a local antique shop for $20. It was a little tattered, but I added some turquoise burlap ribbon to the worst of the boards, and it looks so pretty with my friend Shannon's cards. As I have mentioned many times, I am a fan of her work and she is going to be one of the artists featured in our shop. I can't wait for people in Mebane to get to know her work. It's so wonderful! We are hoping to open the first week in August, time is all of a sudden catching up to me and I wonder if I will have everything done. I ordered a Square P.O.S. system yesterday, went all out and got the bar code scanner, label printer, and cash drawer, even bought a new iPad. I am spending money like I have it, whew..... this better work out!

It was so fun to see a big 18 wheeler pull up in front of my store with boxes... for me! This is going to be a daily occurrence soon, I have so many orders to write. Oddly enough, this past year and the suck ass job I had taught me a lot and prepared me well for this. Funny how things work out....

Gerry has started an instagram for the store. You can find it on my instagram. He is definitely the better photographer in the family :)
We have decided to forgo FB and stick with the website/blog and instagram. Wesley was cheering us on at the mention of not doing FB, she is so not a fan. I think most folks her age are going more the route of IG and kinda over FB and I am after that demographic so I'm going with her advise, she never fails me. Has it really only been two weeks since I got dumped by stupid company?! Seems like a year has already passed. This is going to be so much fun!!!!!

Monday, June 5, 2017

Thank you guys so much for your Facebook comments. All I have heard is how I have to do Facebook if I am going to have a store. My last employer/boss was obsessed with Facebook, we hired a cute social media girl, blah blah. I looked back at their pages and they had maybe one or two likes per post. And lots of bad reviews and nasty comments. And they spent a lot of money on FB.
I really don't see the point. I tried, I gave it an effort, but every time I have any sort of encounter with FB I get pissed off. Its not worth it to me. I will take out a dang ad in the newspaper to keep from having to post on FB!! So I am deactivating the account. I will continue to post news on the website/blog I created, which I like doing, and Gerry will at some point, help contribute to an instagram, but he has a day job, so that will be a part time days off thing for him.

The photo above is of things I left behind when I got laid off (except my tools, which I love). It feels so good not to carry that beast of burden around anymore. Today I woke up for our weekly conference call and realized I didn't have to do that. I feel amazing relief and joy for life, what a favor those stupid people did me! New store, new journey, life is so great!!!!

Life is also great for Wesley these days. She so deserves it, she had a rough course for a while there. So news of my girl, which I have written about since she was in 8th grade (I cannot believe that!)
Wes is working in Wilmington NC for Screen Gems Studios, with two other UNCSA graduates that she hung out with while in school there. The show she is a part of is called Good Behavior, it is a TNT show. If you are a Downton Abbey fan, Lady Mary is the lead actor and plays a rather bad girl. We love the show and Wesley is making friends with all sorts of interesting people and doing something good for herself almost every day. I am so proud of her I could actually burst and very happy for her as well.

She lives on a little cobblestone street in a shotgun house. Teeny tiny, but adorable and perfect for her. The neighborhood is a little bit of everything, very diverse in culture, and alternative lifestyles. I love the people on her street. It feels very much like New Orleans and she has settled in very nicely.

The store is coming along great, we have almost all the furniture we need now. I was hoping for a little more money from stupid company, but I'm just keeping the faith that whatever has been propelling this venture will work all of that out for me. Doors continue to open and no road blocks as of yet, so I am hopeful for a successful business and a wonderful shop to be proud of. I hope all of you can come visit!! We are targeting an opening around the first of August. Will keep you posted.

Also check out Joshbroomehomestead.com for news. So glad to be able to blog again and have some nice thoughts to share, instead of constant complaining about ignorance and exhaustion!

Sunday, June 4, 2017

June 1, Gerry and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary. We had a great day, its hard to believe 32 years have passed since the day we were married. Where in the world does time go!?

We are harvesting herbs in the mornings for the store, chamomile, mint, hyssop, lemon balm. Gerry is growing flowers that we will sell in small bouquets and we will probably have enough tomatoes and peppers to share. Its so nice to get up in the morning and walk around in the yard harvesting instead of getting in the truck and driving to a store to set up. There is nothing at all I miss about my former job. The weight of the world is off of my shoulders!

We have also been moving furniture into the store. I got this wonderful turquoise table Saturday, it is so perfect. The store is becoming more and more of a reality. I keep waking up wondering if I am in a dream, it feels so right and everyone is so supportive. I cannot wait to get the doors open!
I'm trying out Facebook for the store, but as you know from past blog posts, I hate it. Its formatting is cumbersome, and I have already screwed it up several times. I find it invasive and thick with rules, and I just can't get into posting on it at all..... I will continue my blog for the store at joshbroomehomestead.com but I'm afraid the Facebook will be minimal at best....

Friday, May 26, 2017

Last night I slept the most sound and peaceful sleep I have slept in over a year. Is anyone still out there? I never did figure out how to get my blog roll back and have not had a moment to find any of you out there.
Well, a lot has happened in my little life. I have been not liking hating this job for awhile, 60 hour work weeks, gone out of town four days a week, sleeping in cheap ugly hotels, management that can't find their way out of a paper bag, listening to the woes of store managers that are worked to death, under appreciated, under paid, trying to reset stores that are filthy, too much heavy lifting, did you know you can get a vagina hernia? bruises on my body all the time, developed acid reflux, insomnia. All for a pay check. A good pay check, but at what cost?

Yesterday, the poor little man that tried to be my boss brought the new HR guy (they fired the previous one, the only African American mgt. ever in the company) to a store I was working in, and right there in front of customers, employees, managers, proceeded to tell me they were going to have to "let me go". I have a bit of a temper, so as you might imagine, it was not pretty and the word mother fucker flew out of my mouth more than it has in quite a while. I might have thrown the new Epson portable printer they gave me, and I also might have thrown the new laminator, which I loved and wish now I had kept..... ce la vie.

So, here I sit this morning with not a thing to do. I can't believe how good I feel. What a weight that has been lifted. I can go back to the person I really am, regain some creativity and some quality of life. It has been eye opening, walking in the shoes of those who work hard for a living for $10 an hour and deal with idiots that are trying to "manage" the company, but who are only interested in money and profit and cheating customers with 80% markup on cheap Chinese products and doing things like going to Napa auto parts, getting a $4 part and charging customers $20 to put it on.

NOW some really BIG news!!!!! I have been secretly working on weekends to open a new store, and what these fools did not realize is that I was planning to resign at the end of the month anyway, HA!
Go over to this link http://www.joshbroomehomestead.com and check out my new plan. Gerry and I are opening a garden/homesteading store in Mebane NC, hopefully by September, sooner if I get all my tax numbers in and get product ordered. This has been a dream of mine for so long and the Universe answered with many doors opening so easily, I will tell you more later.
Its good to be back!

Friday, October 7, 2016

Days are filled with puppy love and work and family. Could there be anything more? Maybe more time for friends or vacation, or quiet walks, but mostly life is good and I am blessed. I have very little time for my blog anymore and not much new to say anyway, just puppy puppy.... work is still hard, rewarding but challenging. Gerry is chasing storms, riots.... Wesley is writing and has had a nice gig here with the Center for Documentary Studies, a good distraction and great contacts for the future. She seems happy, healthier than I have seen her in at least three years. Gerry and I love having her and puppy here and dread the day they move on to new adventures. I cut short my remodels in South Carolina due to Hurricane Matthew and the evacuation panic, got out of there before traffic got crazy. I was heading home and Gerry was heading into the storm. Such is our life.

I lost my entire blog roll, just clicked here one day and poof it was gone. No idea why. I have no time nor the inclination to try and build it back, no idea how to get it back, so I fear I have lost touch with all the wonderful blogs I like reading. Maybe one cold snowy day, I can sit and build a new one..... but there is way more to deal with than a blog right now. One day..... Meanwhile, I'll visit those I can on instagram and email. No cable, no blog, no Facebook, no twitter, living in the dark ages! and yet, somehow I manage to survive and have intelligent thoughts from time to time!

If you know an easy way for me to get my blog roll back, I would love to hear it. I found a few somewhere in my settings, but nowhere near the list I had, bleh.